English abstract
Date-pits contain extractible high value functional components. Presently, however, very little are being used and date-pits are discarded or used as animal feed. Phenolic compounds of date-pits mainly phenolic acids and flavonids, have been shown to possess health beneficial properties, such as antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, antimicrobial, antimutagenic and antiinflamatory activities. Colorectal cancer has been reported as the second most common cause of cancer death in the Western world. In Oman, the cancer incidence report of the year 2010 presented that colon cancer is the most frequent in Omani males. The present thesis investigated the phytonutrients composition of date-pit extract (DPE) and its effect in azoxymethane (AOM)-induced oxidative stress in rat colonic cells. Results showed that DPE contains phytonutrients capable of inhibiting chemically-induced oxidative stress in the rat colonic cells. A protective effect with DPE was observed against AOM-induced oxidative stress in rat colonic cells as evident by a significant decrease in MDA and oxidized DCF formation in AOM injected and DPE fed group. In conclusion, our results support the notion that DPE contains anticarcinogenic phytonutrients capable of inhibiting chemically-induced oxidative stress in the rat colon. Further studies are required to investigate the dose-dependent effect of DPE and molecular mechanism underlying the DPE protective effects against AOM-mediated colon cancer pathogenesis and any cell toxicity associated with DPE should also be explored in order to determine its safety as supplements.
